


Lumiere Over Me

by Ravenrook



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Drabble Collection, F/F, Female Character of Color, Femslash, Fluff, Fluffy Femslash, POC Hermione, Romance
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-01-01
Updated: 2016-12-27
Packaged: 2018-05-10 21:04:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 7,246
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5600797
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ravenrook/pseuds/Ravenrook
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Returning to Hogwarts after the war had never been a choice for Hermione. It was, in fact, expected of her. Some occurrences that year were less expected. Falling in love with Luna Lovegood, for instance.</p><p>A collection of drabbles following the relationship between two unique witches over their lifetime.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Orpheus

Luna’s pale fingers wrapped gently around the base of the Abyssinian Shrivelfig Hermione was pruning, as the blonde crooned to it softly. The plant swayed with the lilting of her voice, reaching out its tender new growths to stroke Luna’s face. A moment ago, it had been dry, brown and unresponsive in Hermione’s hands.

‘How did you do that?’ she asked. Luna continued to hum, her eyes closed.

‘I just listen to him,’ she said. ‘And I sing with him. He likes it when we harmonize.’

The shrivelfig waved its tentacles more urgently for a moment, before moving them aside to reveal a pulsing purple pod.

‘Well done Luna!’ Professor Sprout yelled from the other end of the green house. ‘Everybody pause and take a look at Miss Lovegood’s blossoming Shrivelfig. These plants need love and understanding if they’re going to recover—I suggest you all follow her example.’

Hermione looked around the greenhouse at the rest of the students who had returned after the war to finish their seventh year. Harry and Ron were nursing a sickly fanged geranium at the bench beside her. Cho Chang wobbled on a stool, cradling a potted flitterbloom. Its tentacles caressed her face, but Cho’s eyes were vague and she remained unresponsive. Behind them, Neville was tooting tunelessly on a wooden flute to please a grumpy venomous tentacular. Working with him was one-armed Parvati Patil on the bongo drum.

The mood in the greenhouse was somber, despite the music. No one could forget the reason these plants were sick. They had been poisoned by the dark magic hanging in the air after the final battle—the battle that had taken so many of their friends, and left others forever changed.

‘Hermione,’ Luna said, her bright voice cutting through the gloom. ‘Come over here. I want you to try something.’

The dark-skinned witch shook out of her reverie. Luna was leaning over a patch of withered nasturtiums, her radish earrings tickling their petals. 

‘I can’t sing,’ Hermione protested.

‘Of course you can.’ The blonde witch smiled.

 ‘I’ve never, sung to a plant before—or to anyone, really. I wouldn’t know where to start.’

 Luna gathered up her long blonde curls and tied them in a knot at the base of her neck, revealing its elegant curves.

‘You start by listening to them, silly,’ she teased. ‘Like this.’ Then she cupped a small orange flower and raised it to her ear, giggling a little as it tickled her. After listening to it for a few moments she opened her mouth and crooned a high, bell-like note that rose and fell smoothly, making the nasturtium flower tremble with delight. ‘Your turn,’ the blonde said. ‘It’s easier if you start with a song you know which matches the flower’s pitch.’

Hermione knelt in the soil and held her ear close to plant, straining to catch a note or a bar of some verse.

‘I can’t hear anything,’ she sighed. She’d never suspected herself of having the kind of attunement with nature and magic as Luna did—it was partly growing up muggleborn, and partly, she admitted, because she tried too hard. There were certain things you just couldn’t force.

‘Here,’ she heard Luna whisper, and then the blonde’s soft fingers were on her arm, sending out tingling darts of warm magic. ‘Listen through me.’

Hermione stilled and listened. She thought she could hear the electrical zapping of a current running from Luna to her, but then, underneath the static, a piercing note warbled faintly. Luna squeezed her arm and smiled at her. ‘Go on,’ she said. ‘He’s waiting.’

Quietly, Hermione began to sing a line from Scarborough Fair, feeling the notes bend around the breeze fluttering past her mouth. The nasturtium plant shivered. She sang a few more lines, and then a verse, and the plant began to sway, nuzzling its petals against her hands and coiling fuzzy feelers over her fingers.

When she looked up, every student in the greenhouse was looking her way, watching her heal the plant with her voice. She blushed hotly and glanced at Luna, who wore a proud smile. It was the first time Hermione had ever been praised for a skill that wasn’t academic. She couldn’t stop herself from grinning.   

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Orpheus was figure of Greek legend, whose musical abilities could charm all living things.


	2. Epiphron

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which a fiery sage delivers much needed counsel.

It was the first Hogsmede trip of the year, on a dismal wet day. Hermione had hidden in the Three Broomsticks and was sitting at a corner table drying her robes with a hot-air charm. She had also noticed, with immeasurable delight, that Luna was sitting up at the bar. The blonde witch wore a pretty, plum-coloured frock with knee-high grey boots and earrings that appeared to be made from exotic birds' feet. She was sketching energetically in a moleskin notebook, oblivious to her surroundings. 

When drawing, Luna's aura of airiness seemed to vanish entirely. Her silver eyes were clear, her brows lowered in an expression of creative determination. Not for the first time, Hermione wished she had the courage to march right up to Luna and snog her. Something about the blonde witch was just so very attractive, and she hadn’t stopped noticing it, ever since that day in herbology.

They had been spending more time together lately. After breaking it off with Ron, he and Harry both had been more distant than usual. The boys were still her fast friends, but Hermione found herself treasuring the time spent with Luna and Ginny more and more after all those years dealing with boyhood antics. Luna often spent the night on the couch in the Gryffindor commonroom, which Hermione couldn't rightly say she minded. 

'And who would you be mooning over? Certainly not my brother.'

Hermione flinched and felt herself blushing. She had forgotten Ginny's presence at the table.

'I'm not  _mooning_ ,' she replied. 'I just caught a glimpse of something I liked the look of.'

'Anyone that I might find interesting?' Ginny winked, turning and rising in her chair to get a better view of the bar. Hermione felt a brief flutter of panic and grabbed the sleeve of her friend's blouse to pull her back down. 

'Oh look - he just left! What rotten luck.'

'He?' Ginny raised one eyebrow. 'Oh come on. You really think I haven't noticed after all these years. I mean, I was a little confused when you started dating Ronald, but I think you were a bit confused too because lord who'd want to live with that kneazelwort.'

Hermione blinked rapidly at the ginger witch's smirk. Her face felt suddenly hot enough to melt and slide right off her skull. How could Ginny know? More importantly, what did she think? Hermione had learned long ago to deal with the prejudice against her blood status, which was made easier by the fact that her main nemeses weren't nice people to begin with. She didn't think she could handle being shunned by a friend for something as inoffensive as being attracted to the same gender. She swallowed nervously. 

'Anyway,' Ginny continued. 'I know you're at least as interested in girls as you are in complex Castilian arithmancy functions, because you stare at them both about the same amount. Which is a lot,' she added after a pause.

'I do not.'

'You do.' The red-haired witch glanced over her shoulder. 'And I'd be willing to bet the fine thing you fancy over at the bar is either Luna or Madame Rosmerta. For your sake I hope it's Luna. I've heard Rosi has had something of a plumbing problem lately.'

'I-' Hermione stuttered. 'I'm-'

'Bi-curious, maybe? I don't think you've actually gone so far as to do any experimenting, but you've thought about it, right?' 

'Yeah, um.' Her thoughts were scattered. She wanted to say more - half wished to deny the claims, but also yearned to finally admit to someone the feelings that had been eating away at her, growing stronger and stronger. 'Ginny,' she ventured. 'What are the wizarding world's views on fluid sexuality.'

'I knew it!' Ginny grinned. 'I totally called that one. And what do you mean _views_?' 

Hermione took a deep breath.

'I mean, is it considered a bad thing, for girls to like girls?'

Ginny snickered. 'Course not. Where'd you get that idea? If you love someone you love someone. Doesn't make much of a difference which bits you have.'

It was like a wave, the relief that washed over Hermione, filling her up with a fuzzy, tingling warmth.

'You're serious?'

'Of course!' She cocked her head to the side. 'Is it different in the muggle world?' 

Hermione smiled crookedly and said, 'yeah, something like that.' Then she had an idea. 'Is Luna-?'

'Curious? Well I have been in her dormitory and she does have a rather revealing picture of that broomstick model Nina Wolfren on the roof of her four-poster so I'm going to go with... yes.' Ginny knocked back the last of her firewhiskey and grinned. 'I'm also going to say that you two would make an oddly adorable couple and that you should definitely do something about that.' Then she stood up, pulled on her raincoat and headed for the door with a quick shout of 'See you back in the common-room.' 

That left Hermione alone at the corner table, with a lot to think about. Luna was still scribbling in her notebook, her impish curls bouncing prettily around her face. Should she do it? She wanted to. She was dying to go up there and ask Luna what she was drawing, flirt a little, offer to go with her to honeydukes, spend the afternoon sneaking sweet things into each others pockets. Sighing, Hermione tightened her robes, stood up and shuffled for the door. She wondered where her Gryffindor courage had gone. 

 

 

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Epiphron is the spirit of prudence, shrewdness, thoughtfulness, carefulness, and sagacity in Greek mythology.


	3. Caerus

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which a water nymph appears for a soul seeking refreshment.

It was November. A month had passed unhappily without incident. No matter what Hermione did, she couldn't seem to get Luna alone. The only class they had together was herbology, and so often they worked in teams of four. Time with Luna and two other people was of course better than time without her, but Hermione didn't feel daring enough to make a move with others around. She wondered if the war had weakened her nerves.

Even in the library Luna was never without company. The blonde witch was an oddity among her classmates, but well accepted by the younger grades. She was very maternal with the first year Ravenclaws, and they clustered around her feet wherever she sat, asking her questions about what wrackspurts were really, and why their friends couldn't see the Greater Thistle-downed Blort that lived in the boathouse. Hermione spent many afternoon's in the library, lurking behind shelves, pretending to search through the titles but instead peeking to check if Luna was yet alone. All she needed was a chance. A moment alone with the beautiful witch who had become one of her favourite friends.

That chance didn't arrive until a very strange fall day. Hermione was patrolling the grounds - part of her role as newly reinstated senior prefect. She'd been offered the role of head girl, but turned it down. She wasn't ready to assume leadership responsibilities again. Not yet. And besides, Ginny was more than deserving. Hermione wanted a quiet year, and god-forbid, a little romance that lead to something other than watching her boyfriend shove food into his mouth for eight hours a day, and keeping him away from childish pranks the other sixteen. She wanted Luna. Everything she thought seemed to circle back to that, even as she skirted the edge of the forbidden forest, checking for adventurous youngsters. As she roamed closer to the lake, she took off her shoes, hiked up the sleeves of her robes and revelled in the chill air eddying across her skin. Prefect patrols were about the only time she got to spend outside the castle - the rest was taken up feverishly preparing for the N.E.W.T's still months away, and otherwise living up to the mantle of _brightest witch of her age_.  

Turning off the beaten path, Hermione slipped between the dense foliage of the forest and the lighter band of trees lining the lake bank. Ahead was her favourite place to visit, when she had the chance. The trees thinned out entirely, making way for a soft, springy grass which cushioned her steps. In the warmer months, the clearing was dotted with purple flower-heads and sprays of yellow pollen clusters. Across the grassy circle, a rough track wound between the trees down to the lake shore. It was always deserted, being technically out of bounds. But today the path was dotted with patches of colour - a lilac blouse draped over a fern, a knitted blue skirt on the branch of an elm, red lace panties hanging from a patch of lichen. Hermione almost covered her eyes. Then she sighed. Some randy fourth-year was naked, out here, while she was on prefect duty, and because this area was out of bounds, she was going to have to go find them.

'Hello?' she called into the underbrush. 'Look - you can't be out here.' There was no reply. Hermione edged gingerly down the path towards the lake, half shielding her eyes from what she was afraid might come running out of the trees. She did catch a glimpse of a crimson bra flung across a patch of gorse. It had a small patch sown on the left cup in orange cotton which read  _I support heliopaths._

Hermione felt heat rushing from her neck up into her cheeks. She had a sneaking suspicion who's underwear she had stumbled across, and exactly the kind of zany personality that would want to go skinny-dipping in the black lake in late November.

There were two bends left in the path. She skirted around the first one, and her ears were met with the faint melody of a song. It was the same song Luna had sung to her shrivelfig that fated herbology lesson - all lilting high notes and falling runs. It sounded like a waterfall translated into music. 

Hermione hesitated before the final bend. She'd been waiting a month for her chance to see Luna alone - but she hadn't counted on the witch being naked at the time. She'd found it hard enough talking to Ron without his clothes on, even after they'd been dating for months. She couldn't do it. She had to turn back. 

But her duty as a prefect - 

'Luna?' she called. 'Is that you?'

The voice continued singing without reply. Hermione shaded her eyes with her hand and walked to the fringe of the trees, where the soil met the pebble beach. She didn't look at the water, except to catch a glimpse of tumbling white hair fluttering in the lake breeze.  

'Luna, please. If it's you can you come out and put your clothes back on. You're not allowed to be here.'

There was a pause and some splashing that got gradually louder, as if the blonde were coming back to shore. The noise then slowed and stopped, and a female voice said,

'Why don't you come in?'

Hermione was so surprised that for a moment she let her hand drop, and suddenly couldn't raise it again. Before her stood a glorious water nymph, an aphrodite, glistening with beads of pure sunlight. Her body was beautiful, slender and fine like porcelain, with graceful curves. Her hair was liquid silver, flowing over her torso and meeting with the water like moonlight meeting wave tops. Hermione held her breath, waiting for the illusion to shatter.

_I'm dreaming,_ Hermione thought to herself.

'I-' Hermione stammered. 'I'm really sorry. I'll just...'

Luna did not try to cover herself. She stood with her hands on her hips, waist deep in the water with a dreamy smile gracing her features.  

'What are you waiting for? The water is lovely,' she chimed. 

Hermione tried to think of something to say that would be socially acceptable in this circumstance, but all that came out was a stuttered and slightly shrill, 

'Are you _mad_?' 

'Its not  _that_ cold. Just use a warmwater charm, if you're worried.' 

_Oh my_ , Hermione thought.  _This is just - when does this ever happen?_ She tried to keep her eyes off of Luna's shimmering skin. Tried to pull her thoughts away. There was something she was supposed to be doing - essays to write, she had to get back. She couldn't do this. Any excuse. Prefect patrol! She was still supposed to be minding the grounds. She wasn't ready.

'You'll probably want to get undressed without me looking,' Luna said, and then giggled - as if this was a normal occurrence. 'I'll wait for you out there.' She pointed to a large rock peeking from the surface of the lake out in the deep water.

'Luna!' Hermione whispered, outraged. 'I'm on prefect duty. I can't _stay for a swim._ '

'When does your patrol finish?' Luna's voice was measured, but her eyes glinted with something impish.

'Four o'clock.'

'That's in five minutes.'  

'Five -' 

Hermione paused, her eyes lingering on Luna's hair, which had moved aside to reveal her chest. In front of Hermione was everything which had occupied her thoughts for the past month - every fantasy and curiosity. All she had to do was act. She couldn't believe it was that easy. Logic warned her away, but her heart willed her forward. This year was all about her heart. 

With hesitant steps she retreated to the treeline and began to undress. Her underclothes weren't nearly as fancy as Luna's; she hid them under a fern. Peering through the branches of an aspen tree, she watched Luna dive off of the boulder with a graceful arch. She pushed the foliage aside and stepped out onto the beach. Was she truly doing this? It was outrageous, erotic - two things she had actively avoided all her life. 

Hermione tiptoed down the beach. Her frizzy hair wasn't near long enough to cover her breasts, so she used her hands. She reached the water as quickly as she could, but as her toes touched the edge she gasped at its chillness - so freezing she felt she couldn't breath if she went any further. She glanced up, to check that Luna was still looking the other way, then cast a charm to warm the water around her. 

She swam out to the boulder. 

'You came,' an airy voice exclaimed from above. Luna was stretched out on the rock like a sunning mermaid. 'I wasn't expecting it, but I hoped you would.' 

'I can't believe I'm doing this,' Hermione whispered as she tread water. 'This is absolutely mad.'

'You look very pretty,' was Luna's poker-faced reply. She reached out to trace Hermione's dark skin. 'Like satin,' she whispered. And it might have been odd, if Hermione didn't so admire the way Luna did what she wanted, without thinking how she might be judged for it.

Hermione blushed. 'You look pretty too Luna. Really pretty.' She looked down at her feet, just visible through the murk. 'Why are you out here?'

'I like to swim,' she said simply, before breaking into a sly grin. 'And because Ginny told me you like it here. She also told me you might like this.'

Luna slid down off the rock. She swam closer to Hermione. And she kissed her.  

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Caerus is the spirit of opportunity in Greek mythology.


	4. Homonoia

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which a secret is revealed and Luna encounters an interesting muggle invention.

Luna Lovegood was in her room. Luna Lovegood was standing next to her bed, in a light cornflower sundress with her hair pulled back talking about that new Belgian model in Transfiguration Today. Hermione was half-listening, glancing around her room in utter horror at the clutter that consumed her living space. She never meant it to get like this. It was just that, in between classes, studying, prefect duties and outings with Luna, cleaning always dropped to the bottom of her list of priorities. Of course, she'd happily sacrifice an organised dormitory for a few hours with her girlfriend, but she didn't want Luna to have to look at the mess. 

Surreptitiously, Hermione tried to straighten her bedspread, but she bumped her nightstand in the process. The bottom drawer popped open and suddenly, back issues of the Quibbler were tumbling out across the floor.  _Oh no. Of course. It had to be that drawer._ She bent and quickly started gathering them up, a hot flush creeping from her neck into her cheeks, but Luna’s hand gently squeezed her shoulder.  
  
‘Don’t,’ the blonde witch said. Hermione stopped and Luna crouched down next to her, reaching out dainty fingers for the nearest copy. Its cover was emblazoned with a sluggishly flashing picture of Elbertus Freed, holding a vial of green powder that the headline proclaimed worked wonders in removing horklumps. ‘This is from 1974,’ Luna breathed. ‘Hermione how many of these do you have?’  
  
‘A few,’ Hermione admitted. ‘This one is interesting. It’s from ’65.’ She handed over a silvery issue with the title _Truth about Jarvey Brood-mills in Northern Ireland_.  
Luna passed her fingers reverently over the cover before flicking through the pages.  
  
‘This must have been one of my father's first editions.' She regarded Hermione quizzically. 'Wherever did you get them all?’  
  
Hermione started to stack the fallen copies back into the draw, her blush intensifying. ‘I’m really sorry Luna,’ she said. ‘I was going to give them to you. I just got so caught up in reading them – some of these articles are really quite brilliant – and I was trying to get through them fast enough to give them back to you by Christmas but there are just so many.’  
  
‘What do you mean? I have all of my own in my school trunk.’  
  
‘I—’ Hermione smoothed her hair back and wrapped it into a low bun. Then she sat down on the bed. ‘I went back to your house after the war was over. I knew – I felt like you may not want to go back. And there were a lot of rare objects around that I thought deserved not to be lost.’  
  
Luna lowered herself onto the bed next to Hermione, a crinkle appearing on her smooth brow. ‘You went back.’  
  
‘Yes.’ She glanced at Luna’s small hand on the bedspread, with brightly painted nails, then boldly took it. ‘It wasn’t that bad Luna, really. It wasn’t.’  
  
‘I know.’ The blonde smiled whimsically. ‘I didn’t want to go back because… I liked being able to remember it as it was whole.’  
  
‘That’s lovely, Luna.’ Hermione squeezed her hand, marvelling as she always did at the blonde witch's optimism. ‘I did manage to save some things though. Like these.’ She gestured to the books. ‘They were in an old trunk under the stairs, barely touched.’  
  
‘So much knowledge.’ Luna shared a tinkling laugh. ‘You couldn’t bear to leave them.’  
  
‘And you can have them back. I was just enjoying them so much. It’s been so long since I’ve read just for leisure.’  
  
Luna twisted her hand in Hermione’s grip, interlacing their fingers, then leaned in to place a soft kiss on her nose.  
  
‘Keep them.’ 

\----

The two witches spent the rest of the afternoon in Hermione's dormitory - being as it was so dreary and cold outside. It was only a few weeks until Christmas and both were preoccupied with thinking about what presents they ought to get each other. They had been officially dating for two weeks now. It took Hermione a few days (in her opinion too long) to ask Luna on a date after their kiss in the lake. Granted, she had really just been nervous that revealing her sexuality would result in a return to the days of being jeered at and insulted in the corridors, as she had been when the Slytherins made her blood status seem so importantly abominable. But the feelings she had for Luna felt too special to be push aside and ignored, so she'd summoned every ounce of courage the war had left her with, marched up to Luna in the middle of the Langley-Dunn corridor and asked if she would perhaps like to go out on a date to Walforg's Memorial Wizarding Zoo the next weekend she had free - which happened to be that very one.

That had been one of the greatest afternoons of Hermione's life. She'd let Luna help pick her outfit for the day and ended up in a pink sweater and a pair of Luna's sunshine-yellow leggings - because regular jeans just wouldn't complement her aura. It felt so good to be wearing something strange, perhaps even a little reckless, and to stroll through the lines of spacious animal habitats holding the hand of a smiling, beautiful witch who genuinely liked her. It was nice to openly acknowledge who she was - that she liked this girl - and to see other wizarding folk merely smile as they walked past, the way they'd smile if they saw and girl and her boyfriend doing something romantic.

'Hermione,' Luna whispered from behind a 1980s copy of her father's magazine.

'Yes?'

'Have I told you today that you're beautiful?' She let the paper drop onto the bed and crawled a little closer to her dark-skinned girlfriend. 'What are you wearing on your eyes? It really makes them look golden.'

'Its eyeliner,' said Hermione with a chuckle. 'A muggle invention - it comes in a small bottle with a tiny brush. You use it to paint a line on the top of your eyelid.'

'How strange.'

'It is a little, when you think about it.'

'Does it come it lots of different colours, or just this coppery one?'

'It comes in every colour.' Hermione smiled and brushed a piece of Luna's hair back from her face, letting her hand linger there and stroke her cheek.

'Next time I'm in London, maybe I can find a blue bright enough to match your eyes.'

'You're wonderful,' Luna said, before swooping in for another kiss.  

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Homonoia is the spirit of unanimity, concord and oneness of mind in Greek mythology.


	5. Hedylogos

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Christmas Day, Part One.

Both Hermione and Luna had elected to stay at Hogwarts over the Christmas break – along with Harry and Ron, Ginny and Neville. Most missed home, and none more than Hermione, whose parents were struggling with being parted from her after being forced to forget her existence for more than a year. But all of the seventh years seemed painfully aware that this year would be their last together within the sanctuary of the castle.

Lunches and breakfast were spent less often in The Great Hall and more often on the grounds or in the Transfiguration Courtyard, with close friends and bundles of food wrapped in a blankets. Sometimes Winky the house elf would venture out of the kitchen to find them, bringing hot croissants soaked with butter, canary creams and fresh eclairs.

Christmas morning was one such affair – though slightly more orchestrated. Hermione made sure that Harry and Ginny were busy on a date, that Neville had his baby mandrakes to tend in the greenhouse and Ron was busy scoffing mince pies and feeling sorry about his lack of someone to _have at_ underneath the mistletoe. She found a small alcove leading off of the main staircase up the astronomy tower. Through its leaded window one could look over a sweeping vista of waving treetops and distant mountains. She informed Winky of where to bring food and other supplies (tipping the elf with a handful of sickles, of course) and then manoeuvred Luna up there just before lunch.

‘Where are you taking me?’ Luna giggled as Hermione lead her up the staircase with her eyes tight shut.

‘I thought we’d do our exchange of presents somewhere a little nicer than either of our common rooms.’ The brunette witch grinned. ‘You can open your eyes now – we’re here.’

Luna pressed a kiss onto Hermione’s cheek before opening her eyes.

‘Oh this is beautiful!’

‘I tried to get as many of your favourite foods as I could remember – red currant tarts, cauldron cakes, crystallized pineapple chunks. I got some Fizzing Whizbees too – the blueberry flavour. I thought they could be fun.’

‘And I brought some butterbeer – special brew,’ Luna added, procuring an unlabelled bottle from the inside pocket of her pea coat. ‘Merry Christmas,’ she whispered.

‘Merry Christmas.’ Hermione engulfed her girlfriend in a hug, burying her face in Luna’s lavender-scented hair. When she stepped back, she took the bottle and added it to the mountain of foodstuffs resting against the window pane. Then she took Luna’s hand and pulled her back onto the blanket and pillows she’d nested in the alcove. The blonde leaned into her eagerly and pressed a line of kisses up her neck, then nipped playfully at her ear.

‘Should we exchange our presents first, or feast?’   

‘I am positively famished,’ Hermione laughed. ‘Perhaps both?’ She reached for a piece of pineapple dusted with glittering sugar and popped into Luna’s mouth.

‘Mmm, yes. Definitely both.’ She rolled off of Hermione and curled around a pillow, reaching for two red currant tarts. ‘But who gets to give their gifts first.’

‘Do you mind if I do?’ Hermione lifted up an adjacent pillow to reveal a large box and two smaller boxes, all wrapped with brown paper across which a pattern of sphinxes strutted and danced. ‘One of mine is a little impatient.’

‘How cryptic.’ Luna grinned dreamily, then threw a handful of pineapple chunks at Hermione. ‘Alright then, off you go.’

‘The first.’ Hermione passed over the largest box, which let out a soft rustling sound. Luna did not hesitate in tearing away the wrapping to reveal a tall carry-case with a barred door, behind which a small furry face peered curiously out.

‘Oh!’ Luna squealed, unclipping the cage door and hefting out a tiny lump of cream fur, with grey splotched across its shoulders. The kitten looked much like a regular feline, save for its larger paws, taller ears and softly tufted tail. ‘It’s a kneazle! Oh Hermione.’ She held the kitten up to bump noses with it. The kitten mewed softly and pawed her cheek.  

‘I knew how much you missed Elwin,’ Hermione explained. Luna’s owl had disappeared during the battle of Hogwarts, and the blonde witch hadn’t felt ready for another, preferring to visit the Thestrals and other creatures in the forest when she craved animal company. Hermione had noticed, however, that she’d been lavishing extra attention on Crookshanks, who was part Kneazle himself. They would cuddle for hours by the Gryffindor fire, which was a testament to how well she and Hermione were paired. Kneazles are very keen judges of character.

‘He’s perfect,’ Luna crooned, snuggling the kitten in the crook of her neck. ‘He’s like an itty bitty ray of sunshine.’

Hermione’s smile stretched wide and she reached out to scratch behind the kneazle’s ears. He leaned into her hand, purring. ‘What are you going to name him?’

Luna deliberated for a moment. She put the kitten down and watched him roll around,

‘I think I’ll call him Sidus,’ she said, her finger tracing the dapple of spots across his shoulders. ‘It means something like constellation, in Latin.’

Sidus nipped at her finger with his tiny fangs.

‘I have two other presents for you, if you’d like them now,’ Hermione said. She reached behind her for the two smaller packages and handed them to her girlfriend, who settled Sidus in her lap and resumed unwrapping. The first of the smaller gifts was a selection of small bottles.

‘Eyeliner!’ Luna exclaimed. She opened a brilliant azure and peered at the tiny brush with unbridled excitement and curiousity.

‘I put a charm on that one,’ Hermione explained, ‘– one I’ve been developing for a little while. It should change to match the colours of your outfit. I’m hoping it works.  I’ve only tried it out with a few basic colours.’

‘You’re incredible,’ Luna whispered. ‘Inventing your own spells. Thank you so much for this.’ She placed the bottles inside Sidus’s carry-case to keep them safe and began to unwrap the third gift. It was a pocket-sized handbook bound in acid-green leather – a field guide to the latest magical creatures unearthed in the deep amazon by magizoologist Urqa Quairo. Luna hugged it close to her chest and inhaled the musky leather scent. She crawled towards Hermione, to claim her lips in a velvet kiss.

With her lips pressed to the curve of Hermione’s neck, Luna whispered, ‘I only got two presents for you, but for the third I have an offer.’ Heat rose in the brunette’s cheeks.

‘Can I have the third one first?’

‘Nope,’ Luna quipped, nipping at Hermione’s jawline. Then she retreated to her own cluster of pillows and pulled Sidus back onto her lap.

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hedylogos is the god of sweet talk and flattery in Greek mythology.


	6. Euthenia

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Christmas Day, Part 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you to everyone who has waited so long for this chapter, and thank you for all of your beautiful encouraging comments. I hope you enjoy this chapter, and there will be another exciting one up very soon xx

‘Number one,’ Luna said, producing a small gift in silver-starred paper.

Hermione took it. She felt a gentle vibration beneath the paper, and heard a soft whirring sound. When she unwrapped the paper, out fell a small bundle of spindly golden prongs and orbs that resembled a tangle of bowtruckles. Her brow crinkled in confusion, but Luna just laughed and waved her wand. The golden structure rose into the air and began to unfold, sinuously joining prong to prong to make several large loops. The orbs of varying sizes affixed themselves to different loops, and slowly a small shining model of the solar system took shape.

A small gasp escaped her lips. It was so simple, so beautiful, and so practical. She hadn’t been sure what to expect in the way of gifts from her eccentric girlfriend, perhaps a contraption that excelled in warding off wrackspurts. This went above and beyond.

‘This is… it’s.’ Hermione struggled for words.

‘It’s very beautiful isn’t it?’ Luna brought the model down to rest on their blanket with her wand. As it touched the floor the planets began to spin and set themselves to their correct alignments.

‘Now they look just like they do out in space,’ she explained. ‘I thought you could use it as a more luxurious option for astronomy, but also—it does this.’ She tapped the tiny bronze moon next to earth, and the whole structured immediately wobbled and folded in on itself, the gold flowing together until the only orbs left were earth, the moon and the sun, enlarged. ‘You can use this to plan out anything you want to using the phases of the moon. You’ve probably read about it, but it’s very good for you, to sync your cycles of productivity with the celestial bodies.’

Hermione stared at Luna, taking in the silvery sheen in her eyes that signalled excitement, the slight blush in her cheeks, the small blue feather she’d tucked behind her ear.

‘I am so dizzyingly in love with you,’ Hermione breathed, reaching up to brush her thumb across her girlfriend’s cheek. Then she gently cupped her neck and drew her in for a kiss, long and deep—a resolute ‘thank you’ kiss, that was much more enjoyable than just saying the words.

Eventually, she had to break away. First, because she was achingly curious about what her next gift was, and how it could possibly top this one. Secondly, because she was afraid if they didn’t stop, she’d be getting her third gift before her second.

Slightly out of breath, Luna whispered, ‘If that’s the reaction I get from gifting you, I might get you presents every day.’ Then she levitated the model of the solar system into a safe corner. Sidus had been upended from her lap somewhere amidst the heated kissing and now rushed over to bat at the tiny orbs as if they were balls of yarn.

‘Gift number two, coming up,’ the blonde said through a giggle.

This box was significantly larger, and a faint but wonderful smell wafted from it. 

'I am intrigued,' she whispered, as she began to carefully pry away the wrapping. Inside was a yellow box with a green silk ribbon. She paused for a moment, assailed by a colourful mix of scents, before Luna urged her on. The ribbon was undone and fell away, then Hermione lifted out the first of several large chalky spheres. The texture and weight of it struck a chord in her, and she thought she could remember holding one of these in her childhood, but she had no idea what it could be.

At her quizzical look, Luna piped up. 'It's a bath bomb! You know, the colourful things muggles put into their bathwater to help them relax? I thought some of these might help you keep calm and feeling good before NEWTS.’

Hermione remembered now: the swirling vibrant foam and intoxicating rainbow of aromas that coloured her childhood baths before Hogwarts. The brunette witch studied the large green orb she had picked up. ‘Guardian of the Forest. It’s you in a bath bomb,’ she said to Luna with a chuckle. It smelled earthy, mystical and sweet, just like her girlfriend – a mix of heady green moss and pine trees, something musky like roses and fresh like lime. ‘Luna, this is such a thoughtful gift.’

Luna grinned, and then pulled her lips into a soft sort of smirk. ‘Don’t think you’re going to be enjoying them alone. I fully intend to enjoy every single one just as thoroughly as you do.’

Hermione felt heat blossom in her cheeks at the thought of her and Luna curled against each other in one of the Prefect bathroom’s spacious ivory tubs.

‘That sounds delightful,’ she replied, with a slight husk in her tone. ‘So delightful, I think we need to try one of these out now.’

‘But there are so many stairs between here and there.’ The blonde witch began to crawl towards Hermione, pushing her back onto the pillows. ‘And it’s so comfortable here. So warm, and isolated, and it smells like pineapple and jasmine flowers.’ She tucked a strand of Hermione’s frizzy hair softly behind one ear. Even the faintest brush of Luna’s skin against hers spread blooms of magical warmth across her cheek.

As Luna’s lips touched hers, Hermione’s head reeled. She could barely believe she was doing this, but she didn’t want it to stop. Luna had a way of driving from her mind all sense of logic and reason in a way no one ever had before. It was oddly, amazingly, beautifully freeing. Hermione gave herself to it, wrapping her arms around Luna’s neck and leaning into the kiss.  

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Euthenia is the goddess of prosperity, abundance and plenty in Greek mythology. 
> 
> I thought Luna's second gift to Hermione was particularly appropriate. I can imagine how pleased Luna would be to discover LUSH and all of their company values, particularly the animal rights ones. Also, I now really want to see what kind of things the wizarding world could do with the idea of bath bombs.


	7. Korybantes

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which New Years celebrations get hella cute for our two favourite witches.

Slughorn’s New Year’s Eve Party was considerably more bearable this year, Hermione thought, as Luna stepped off the Grand Staircase and into the moonlight. Her dress was fittingly odd – Hermione knew simple silk dress robes could never do justice to the blonde in the way that this fantasy creation had. The skirt was full and billowing in the slight wintry breeze, layers upon layers of stormy blue chiffon splashed with patches of darker grey, cobalt and snow white. As it moved around her, the fabric seemed to flash and flicker with bolts of green electricity. The corset of the dress was a covering of thin sea-foam-like lace, with a cluster of lilac cornflowers to cover each petite breast. Luna’s dirty-blonde hair fell over her shoulders in a cascade of silver, crowned with a ring of forget-me-nots and fairy lights.

Hermione bit her lip to stop herself from gasping as Luna skipped towards her, the folds of the dress flashing dangerously with ribbons of light. A similarly mischievous look glinted in the blonde’s eye.

‘You look positively ravishing,’ she whispered to Hermione, placing a small but electric kiss high on her girlfriend’s cheekbone.

Hermione blushed, feeling the air skim cool across her bare shoulders. The last time she had worn such an outrageously beautiful gown (and one only half so much as this) had been at the Yule Ball. This creation was far more adventurous. She was torn between a dire need to change into something less ostentatious, and a compelling desire to be the beautiful sun goddess Luna had called her at least sixteen times while helping her dress earlier that evening.

Both of the dresses had been handmade by Luna, with lots of help from her mother’s old design compendiums, and both had distinct ‘Pandora flair,’ according to the blonde. Hermione couldn’t imagine how long Luna had spent sowing together this masterpiece – the folds of fragile challis and chiffon in a flaming ochre colour reminiscent of a fiery sunset. The dress hung off her shoulders, with long bohemian sleeves that ended in bell-like flares. The fabric tickled as it moved around Hermione’s wrists. She watched the moonlight play across the swirling skirt. The cool light failed to diminish its bright copper, as if Luna had enchanted the dress to glow with a warmth of its own.

‘Your hair looks soft,’ Luna breathed. ‘Can I touch it?’

Hermione leaned her head downward a little in agreement, and Luna carded her fingers through the thick frizz. She’d wanted to smooth it out again with Sleekeazy’s Hair Potion, but Luna forbade it. Instead, the blonde wound amber leaves and tiny Black-eyed Susans through it, and dusted golden shimmer across her cheeks.

‘Your mother would be so proud of these dresses,’ Hermione remarked, lightly touching the petals on Luna’s corset. ‘I wish I could have met her.’

‘Oh, she’s around,’ Luna said vaguely, and with a smile. ‘I think she might be the reason these flowers have stayed so fresh. I wanted to put a charm on them, but they never look so real afterwards. It could also be Nargles, of course. Nargle-infested mistletoe never dies.’

Hermione rolled her eyes affectionately, and pulled her petite girlfriend into a hug.

A short time after, as they pushed open the door to Slughorn’s study-turned-elaborate-ballroom, Hermione beamed at how lucky she was to be with the brightest, cheeriest, most beautiful seamstress in England.

\----

‘I want you to do something with me,’ Luna said, once the party was very much in full swing. Her clear voice cut smoothly through the music, whilst Hermione had to yell.

‘Anything,’ Hermione agreed, knowing that was probably foolish. She’d had a lot of punch though, and Luna looked like a fairy.

‘I want us to do the mating dance of the Crowned Froom. It’s quite beautiful and romantic. Daddy managed to capture it in a series of polaroids in ’86, but he and I are, I think, the only ones schooled in its performance. I’d like to teach it to you, though.’

Hermione was torn between feeling deeply honoured, and incredibly anxious.

‘Do you think this is the right place?’ she whispered.

‘Where else?’ the blonde said dreamily, before twirling out into the middle of the dance floor. An upbeat tune by The Weird Sisters had started, and Luna began to dance. First, she would leap into the air, the skirts of her dress rippling with lightning, and then plunge into a low bow that involved rolling her entire body quite sensuously. Then she wriggled her shoulders and bobbed her head, flapping her arms as though they were small but powerful wings. As she danced, her dress seemed to get lighter and lighter, until it was floating in a gravity-defying cloud around her spinning and twirling body. She was glorious and stunning, and all Hermione felt was a surge of loving pride. In the corner of her mind, she dimly registered all the perplexed stares of the students in the room, the giggling and whispering behind hands. Luna had endured that all her life, and it had never slowed her down. Hermione ached for a piece of that freedom.

She spread her wings and soared onto the dance floor.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> According to Greek mythology, Korybantes were crested dancers who worshipped the goddess Cybele. 
> 
> Also, I have several new chapters planned out, and am on holidays, so expect tonnes more fluff stampeding your way. Maybe even with a teeny dash of angst to make things interesting.


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